Thursday, August 27th 2020 Andy Morrison

Theme: Caddy-sack - what your caddie gets when you ask him for a sand wedge and he brings you a Philly Cheesesteak. 

 
20A. Sandwich in Denver?: MILE HIGH CLUB. Editor Rich getting a little racy here! The Mile High city. I've actually had a club sandwich in Denver. I didn't spot the fun pun at the time of consumption.

35A. Sandwich on the briny?: MARINE SUB. I looked sideways at this entry at first, but then realized the clue was referring to a member of the Marine Corps, not the "submerging" vessel.

40A. Sandwich in the neighborhood?: LOCAL HERO. A charming movie with a wonderful soundtrack composed by the guitar great Mark Knopfler, founding member and creative genius of Dire Straits. Here's the theme track played live in London in 2017.

52A. Sandwich at a church concert?: ORGAN GRINDER. The grinder is a close relative of the sub and the hero, "regionally" New England. Some say that if the ingredients are hot, it's a grinder, but cold, it's a sub.

Nice theme from Andy. Some tricky cluing in the fill too which livened things up. It took me quite a bit longer than a typical Thursday due to a couple of unknowns and some nice misdirection.

Let's go for a wander ...

Across:

1. "Amanpour & Co." network: PBS. For some unknown reason, I had "CBS" here at first, which eventually left me wondering about "CLUMP" and whether it was rather rude to call a zaftig lady "clumpy" or "a clump". 

4. Enough and then some: AMPLE.

9. Strand during a hail storm, say: ICE IN.

14. GPS finding: LAT. itude.

15. Take it easy: RELAX.

16. "__ Rae": NORMA. Actress Sally Field won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Norma Rae in the eponymous 1979 movie.

17. Put to work: USE.

18. Small earthen pot: CRUSE. I'd never heard of this, a nice learning moment.

19. Huge success: SMASH.

23. Astronomical octet: PLANETS.

24. River Foyle's province: ULSTER. Northern Ireland, or "Norn Iron" if you want to sound like Rory McIlroy. Try it.

28. Form 1099 agcy.: I.R.S.

29. Japanese sandal: ZORI. I read and re-read "scandal", not "sandal" and was going to read up on who Zori was and what transgression he or she was involved in.

31. Hullabaloo: ADO.

32. Puts up, as drapes: HANGS.

37. Scott of "Big Little Lies": ADAM. Thank you, crosses. I know of Adam Scott the golfer - the one who, in my opinion, cheats with a long putter. 

38. Examined in court: TRIED.

39. Metric prefix: DECI.

42. Like a soufflé, if everything goes well: RISEN. And not collapsed. It's one thing to get a soufflé to rise, it's another thing to get it to stay riz.

43. Busy mo. for the 28-Across: APR.

44. Senate staffer: AIDE.

45. Some MIT grads: EES.

46. Wright who quipped, "Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time": STEVEN.

48. Elaborate wardrobe: ARMOIRE.

55. Left: SPLIT.

58. Bugs with weapons: MORAN.

59. Oral health org.: ADA.

60. Musical work: PIECE.

61. Revise: EMEND. "Emend" is to correct an error, "amend" is to improve something by modifying it.

62. Casual greetings: HI'S.

63. Gets the kitty going: ANTES.

64. They may be pressing: NEEDS.

65. Neruda verse: ODE.

Maru Mori brought me

a pair

of socks

which she knitted with her own

sheepherder hands,

two socks as soft

 as rabbits.

from "Ode to My Socks"

Down:

1. Zaftig: PLUMP. Not clump, then.

2. Pho garnish: BASIL. Food! There's some tremendous Vietnamese food places here in LA. My local one is Pho NoHo, which is a shame as "NoHo" doesn't actually rhyme with "pho". Here's pho (pronounced fuh), basil garnish and all.

3. Inscribed pillar: STELA.

4. Quiver carriers: ARCHERS.

5. Rates: MERITS.

6. Promotes: PLUGS.

7. Mascara target: LASH. Scurvy-ridden deckhands are targets too, me hearties!

8. Corp. bigwig: EXEC.

9. Pancreatic hormone: INSULIN.

10. "The Gift of the Magi" gift: COMBS. O. Henry short story published in 1906, and a very touching story it is.

11. Stat for Clayton Kershaw: E.R.A. A baseball pitcher's stat - Earned Run Average, the lower the number the better. 

12. Online chats, briefly: IM'S.

13. "Hard pass": NAH. 

21. "The Imitation Game" encryption machine: ENIGMA. Cracking of the German coded messages in WWII by cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park in the UK was the primary basis for the movie.

22. Shockingly vivid: LURID.

25. Zaps: TASES.

26. Elicit: EDUCE.

27. Sign of spring: ROBIN.

29. Former name of the Congo: ZAIRE. 

30. Cookie with a Tiramisu Flavor Creme variety: OREO. Didn't I say last week that it's time to declare a period of Crossword Lent for "OREO"? I know it's handy and all to constructors, but it's a little stale. Nothing like a stale Oreo, now is there?

32. "Papa Bear" of football: HALAS.

33. Take on: ADOPT.

34. Mother-of-pearl: NACRE.

35. TV's talking horse: MR ED.

36. Acquirer of more than 1,000 patents: EDISON.

38. Doohickey: THING. Closely related to a whatsit and a thingummy-jig.

41. Ophelia's brother: LAERTES. "Hamlet" characters. Laertes killed Hamlet with a poisoned sword. I suppose it was a belt-and-braces appoach in case the sword slashing or stabbing didn't do the trick, although in most cases poisoning would just add insult to injury. Although Laertes did poison himself with said sword, so I suppose justice was served.

42. Does some jogging?: REMINDS. Another nice clue. Jogging someone's memory.

45. Task for a gofer: ERRAND. There was something wrong with my clue-parsing today. I was wondering what task a golfer might be assigned other than hitting a couple of buckets of balls at the driving range.

47. Word with mail or box: VOICE.

48. Say yes: AGREE.

49. You can cross it in about an hour on I-90: IDAHO. I tried MAINE first. Having no idea where the 90 starts or ends it seemed a reasonable guess.

50. Fixed up: RE-DID.

51. Remove all traces of: ERASE.

53. Grace period?: AMEN. I like this clue - "period" as in the end-of-sentence designator.

54. Alaskan seaport: NOME.

55. Place for a peel: SPA.

56. Map insert: PIN.

57. Service to redo: LET. Tennis.

And there we have it!

And here we have the grid!

Steve

Notes from C.C.:

 

Happy 72nd birthday of dear Lemonade (Jason), who's been been guiding us on Fridays for over a decade. He started his first blog post in March 2010. Thank you so much for your hard work, Lemonade! This is a picture from his trip to Oo' homeland a few years ago. Happy birthday, the king!

Oo and Lemonade

Happy Birthday to the wise man Vidwan827 also! So glad to see you on the blog regularly now.

Friday, February 8, 2019, Andy Morrison

Title: Have you ever met a meta?

Along with REBUS CROSSWORD PUZZLES, I do not believe Rich accepts META PUZZLES. But if you like this concept, you will like this debut puzzle from Andy Morrison. The META is revealed at 37A. Literal and figurative hint to four puzzle answers: MISSING LINK (11) which defeats the meta aspect but gives you a taste of the challenge. We get there with:

18A. Boxing academy?: FLIGHT SCHOOL (11). FIGHT CLUB was a successful movie, but FLIGHT School is where you go to learn to fly an airplane. Here we remove the "L".

30. Optimist's hopeful list?: GREAT PLAINS. We have many here who live in the GREAT PLAINS, but how many make Great PLANS? The "I".

48A. Wild party in Dallas?: TEXAS RANGER. We may be too old to know the Urban Dictionary Definition of RAGER : A larger gathering usually of high school or college students where massive amounts of alcohol are consumed, but with many in the Corner from Texas, we know about all kinds of TEXAS RANGERS.

58A. Literary alliance?: WRITER'S BLOCK (11). A BLOC is defined as a combination of countries, parties, or groups sharing a common purpose.

A Writer's Block is the bane of all authors.

And there you have the four letters which make up the MISSING LINK. But you will not be missing any links here. You also were treated lots of sparkle with ARSENIO, GARBAGE, GENUINE, IN A SPIN, MACABRE, MIDWEEK, EPHESIAN, ICE WATER, CHAMBERMAID and  PACKAGE DEAL

Very impressive Andy.


Across:

1. Yukon supplier: GMC. General Motors makes this full-sized or bigger SUV.

4. __ pants: HAREM. Didn't every one of my age think of this image?

9. Scorned lover of Jason: MEDEA. Thank you
for the shout out Andy, but she was my wife and
killed our children just because I was dumping
her for a Corinthian princess.
If you believe Euripides.

14. Aptly, it rhymes with "spa": AAH. Feels so goood.

15. CNN correspondent Hill: ERICA. never watched her. She is on the right.


16. Big period: EPOCH. Is a period of time in history or a person's life, typically one marked by notable events or particular characteristics. Often the backdrop of 43A. Sword-and-sandal feature, e.g.: EPIC.

17. TV trailblazer: RCA.

20. Loud noises: BAMS.

22. "There, there," e.g.: SOLACE. A Quantum?

23. One at the top of the order: ABBESS.  This is a woman who is the head of an abbey of nuns. They are an order.



26. Whirling: IN A SPIN. Perhaps this MUSIC. My granddaughter and her class sang this along with a Christmas carol at her winter show.

33. "Othello" role: IAGO. The epitome of a bad man.

34. Pamphlet ending: EER.

35. Have __ for: A YEN.

36. Colorful bird: MACAW.

41. Field supervisor: COACH.

44. Turkish title: AGA.

47. Award using spelled-out initials: OBIE. Off Broadway.

51. Wednesday, to be exact: MIDWEEK. In German it is Mittwoch.

53. Souvenirs: TOKENS.

54. Plays ball: AGREES.

57. Musical collaboration instruction: A DUE. An Italian misdirection. LINK.

63. A, in Aachen: EIN. I knew there was German coming.

64. Senate staffers: AIDES. No politics, but a quick look at Senate staff JOBS.

65. Coke or Pepsi: BRAND. I stopped drinking soda long ago but was always a Coke person.

66. Young Darth's nickname: ANI. Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader when he gave in to the dark side, but he was a nice boy.

67. Bright: SMART.

68. Hindu mystics: YOGIS. My most recent Lyft driver was a self-proclaimed "Yogi Guru."

69. Ballet composer Delibes: LEO. I had never heard this NAME. Of course, he died 128 years ago so he has not been in the news much. Maybe he was very good.

Down:

1. Refuse: GARBAGE. The classic refuse/refuse heteronym clue.

2. Poe genre: MACABRE.

3. Title servant in a 1946 Paulette Goddard film: CHAMBERMAID. This screenplay was written by the incomparable BURGESS MEREDITH who later married Paulette.

4. Mag mogul: HEF. The late Hugh Hefner, the ultimate playboy.

5. Home of the 2001 World Series champs, on scoreboards: ARIzona. The SERIES.

6. Eighteen-wheelers: RIGS. My brother-in-law was a truck driver for years following in his father's footsteps.

7. Call back?: ECHO. Nice clue.

8. Only deaf performer to win an Oscar: MATLIN.

9. Waikiki, to surfers: MECCA.

10. Recipient of a New Testament epistle attributed to Saint Paul: EPHESIAN.

11. __-wop: DOO. Two songs in particular may lay claim to being the "first" to contain the syllables "doo wop" in the refrain: the 1955 hit, "When You Dance" by The Turbans, in which the chant "doo wop" can be plainly heard; and the 1956 classic "In the Still of the Night" by The Five Satins, with the plaintive "doo wop, doo wah" refrain in the bridge.

12. Prefix with conscious: ECO.

13. Calder Cup org.: AHL.  It is Hockey, Eh! LINK.

19. Without: SANS. This is one of the French words we have taken over.

21. Vast expanse: SEA.

24. Tuck away: STASH.

25. 1974 CIA spoof: S*P*Y*S. I have had this Donald Sutherland - Eliot Gould attempt to capitalize and the success of M*A*S*H.

27. Discounted combo: PACKAGE DEAL.

28. Supermarket chain: IGA.

29. "__ is the winter of our discontent": Shak.: NOW. Our Friday Will quote, this one from Richard III, Act I, Scene 1.
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

31. Luau ring: LEI.

32. Architect's addition: ANNEX. Why an architect?

36. Start to manage?: MICRO.

38. Summer refresher: ICE WATER. Sorry Tin.

39. College admissions fig.: GPA. Grade Point Average.

40. Document with bullets: LIST. My boss loves bullets in lists, me- not so much.

41. Cousin of org: COM.

42. Band of Tokyo?: OBI. Obi-Wan Kenobi?

45. Sincere: GENUINE.

46. Hall of fame: ARSENIO. He faded since he took on Johnny.

48. Puerto Rico, e.g.: Abbr.: TERRitory.

49. Barely makes it: EKES BY.

50. Handle preceder: AKA. "Also known as," usually listed as a/k/a.

52. Discharge: EGEST. An obvious anytonym of INGEST if you know Latin, but still an unpleasnat wor.

55. Iberian river: EBRO. Memorize the European rivers!

56. Metallic waste: SLAG.

58. Lived: WAS.

59. Basket border: RIM. Why a basket?

60. Early civil rights activist __ B. Wells: IDA. It is a sad statement for the US that she is known for opposing lynching of black men in the 1890's. LINK.

61. Covert maritime gp.: ONI. Office of Naval Intelligence.

62. Cred. union offerings: CDS.

I thought this was a really fine debut puzzle with some challenge, some fun and some learning experience for both solver and constructor. Thank you Andy and all of you who read and especially those who comment. Lemonade out.